


fight tooth and scale for you

by catradorq



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dragon Riders, Dragons, F/F, Princess Lena Luthor, Rider Kara, SuperCorp, not sure where this is going yet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 06:53:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18686368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catradorq/pseuds/catradorq
Summary: “I’m only grateful that the baldness doesn’t quite run in the family. And despite popular belief, neither does the taste for dragon hunting.”-The dragon rider au where Kara runs a ranch thing with her sister and Lena is the princess trying to save the dragon





	fight tooth and scale for you

**Author's Note:**

> This was just kinda a spur of the moment write so idk really if there is going to be many more chapters so read at your own risk. Dragons are awesome ok

If anyone were to ever question it, Alex Danvers would always be the first to ferociously defend her sister’s bravery and general amazing-ness. 

But the elder Danvers sister is definitely finding it quite hard to at the moment. 

-

“Kara! What in Rao’s name are you doing?!!” 

Alex squints against the harsh rays of morning sunlight as she watches the form in the sky twist and barrel roll in a particularly violent manner. She watches with a scowl, because of course her sister would be doing something like this today of all days. 

There is a loud whooping in response to her call, and the flying object stills before making one last loop in the sky. Alex watches as the distant speck grows in size the closer it speeds towards the ground and towards her. Wind begins to whip around her in time with the steady beating of large wings as she makes out the image of Kara perched on the back of a golden dragon. A final beat and a few clicking sounds out of her sisters mouth, and the giant beast lands with a hard thump in the yard. 

Alex is still glaring as she stomps over, uncaring of the dust kicked up in the landing, eyes set sternly on the woman in the saddle. She spares a glance down as the dragon shakes itself in satisfaction, sunlit scales gleaming healthily.

Kara is murmuring down at the creature in a pleased tone, gently patting the giant muscled neck when she catches sight of her sisters face. 

“Oh! Hi Alex! I- what did I do?” The blonde woman nervously laughs, running a hand through her wind blown hair. 

“It’s what you didn’t do, Kara!” Alex hisses and dodges a wing as it passes over her head. She reaches up and roughly grabs at the leather straps holding her sister to the saddle. She begins expertly unbuckling them to Kara’s wide eyed, weak sputtering. “We have customers coming in today and you haven’t even fed the hatchlings yet!”

Seeming to gain her voice back, Kara swats at her sisters hands. “What’s the big deal?” She pouts. “Customers come in everyday!” She takes over where her sister left off with the straps, albeit much more gently. 

Alex’s scowl deepens and she steps back, arms crossed and stance all business. “Not these.”

“I still don’t see what the problem is? Keerin needed an early morning flight. You know she’s been so restless, I’m sure whoever it is can wait.” Kara throws out absentmindedly and loosens the leather rigging across her waist until it slackens. She pats the huffing dragon one last time before unhooking her leg from the stirrup and moving to slide down her flank.

“It’s the Luthors.”

Maybe it was the shock of the name or bad luck but instead of the graceful landing Kara has executed millions of times before, there’s a hard thump as her body crashes to the packed dirt. There is puff of dust and the sound of clicking scales followed by a heavy groan. 

“Ugh. It’s okay Kee. I’m fine.” Kara says tightly, wind knocked from her lungs. 

Alex bites back the snort of smug laughter at her sister sprawled in her flight gear, gently pushing away the curious advances of the concerned dragon prodding her with her scaly snout. She steps closer, blocking the sun as she looms over the dazed woman. Kara’s blue eyes are wide and glazed with shock beneath her goggles. 

“Rao. That’s today?”

“Yup”

“They’re here?”

“Not yet, but soon.” Alex hums before offering her arm to the downed woman. “Lucky for you, you got someone who actually has great time management.” 

With impressive strength she pulls the other up with a jolt and a rough slap to the back as Kara dazedly stumbles to regain her balance. “C’mon, sister. Let’s get you ready to meet the royalty.” 

——————————————————————

Lena peers up at the weather worn sign with a look of intrigue. 

“Danvers’ Dragon Menagerie. Hm” 

She whispers the name under her breath as her carriage passes the gates of the property, staring out at the homely landscape. 

“It doesn’t really look like a place that keeps dragons does it?” Sam, her closest friend and lady-in-waiting, intones mildly, taking in the view as well. The carriage jolts and rumbles as it moves along the gravel path and the woman grimaces. Lena knew that Sam preferred to ride on horseback rather than be cooped up in a cart for hours, she was the same way. But the nature of her venture could afford no suspicion from her mother or brother. Better that they think she is out visiting the neighboring kingdoms rather than her actual goal. Lillian would not have her daughter be seen riding without a coach, the scandal it would cause among the nobles. 

Lena smirks, not looking away from the window.  
“I suppose not. What did you expect?”

“Burnt trees, giant cages… I don’t know really. But dragons aren’t exactly cows or horses, Lena.”

The princess hums in agreement. Lena, of all people would know what a dragon is capable of. She shivers remembering the phantom heat of flames crawling across her skin. 

It’s with a shake of her head and iron will that she refocuses herself in the moment, pulling the cloth of her emerald cloak tighter to herself. 

“Whoa!” 

Both Sam and Lena’s eyes shoot up at the sound of the coach man’s yell and the whinying of horses outside. In a matter of moments the sound of harsh gravel makes way to sifting dirt and the carriage gradually slows to a stop. There’s a series of rumbles, the sound of footsteps on wood and the muffled thump of boots on dirt. The carriage door swings open and both women shield their eyes from the sunlight now streaming full strength into the interior of the space. 

“We’re here, Princess.” 

Lena takes the coachman’s offered arm gently and allows him to lead her down the steps and out into the yard. 

The space is wide and open, the tree line far in the distance and stark in contrast to the grounds of the Luthor castle. While the latter was heavily forested, green with a constant hint of mmist in the air, the land around her now was the opposite. Open and seemingly ruled by the sun. Trees scattered the area in small clumps but much of the vegetation surrounded the main structure Lena could see. There was a garden, consisting less of the flowers she had known of in her kingdom, but instead made up of unfamiliar plants and growths that looked to be designed for the heat. The building itself looked to be more like a cluster of buildings haphazardly built in such close proximity that it appeared to be one structure. It was messy and homely all at once with its decor and Lena could not help but find it oddly endearing. 

Lena could just make out the silhouette of something that looked close to stables only larger before Sam was padding up to her.

“Charming.” Her friend says with a grin. 

Rolling her eyes at Sam’s delight over their new surroundings, Lena turns back to the coachman and gives him a grateful smile. 

“Thank you, Mr. Jones. We are at the understanding that this trip stays between us, yes?”

The man, fatherly in the nature of his smile, tips his hat to her and makes to tend to the horses. 

“Of course, Princess.” 

Lena smiled. Jones was the only one in the castle besides Sam that she knew she could trust full heartedly. A rarity for Lena these days.

With one last breath in, the princess pulls up the hood of her cloak. Nerves begin to surface and she bats them away with the thoughts of her mission in mind.

‘She’s here’’

——————————————————————

The rest of Kara’s morning after Alex leads her back to the housing stables is a whirlwind of anxious activities. Checking in on the egg clutches as well as the few sick and elderly dragons in her care was the easiest, at least for most of them. It was feeding the hatchlings that always took most of Kara’s time. 

So much so that when Alex announces the arrival of their guests Kara is still in the middle of prying her fingers from the jaw of the last tiny bright orange dragon that had gotten a bit too excited during feeding.

“Kara!” Alex’s voice rings through the stables. 

She swears to herself as she jumps up, the baby still clinging and gnawing at her index finger.

“Streaky! Please let go!” Kara pleads desperately. Her hand comes up to support the tiny creature as it refuses to budge. Despite her best efforts, shooting puppy dog eyes at the dragon could not entice it to release its prey. 

“Kara?” 

Kara panics and shifts so that the gurgling, snarling, hatchling is hidden from view as Alex rounds the corner. 

“There you are! You’re not even cleaned up! Ugh- whatever, c’mon the Luthors are here. Just saw the carriage pull up.” There’s an irritated look on the eldest sister’s face at the mention of the family. 

Kara laughs nervously and backs further into the stable. 

“W-wait Alex. Why do I have to go?”

Her sister eyes her oddly before putting her hands on her waist in that familiar pose Kara knows is her ‘big sister’ look.

“Someone has to greet them and we both know you’re the least likely between the both of us to punch an actual fucking king in the face.” Alex almost smirks at the thought before her smile forms into a scowl again. “Also I’m playing the ‘I’m older so do what I say’ card because I can.” 

Kara groans. 

“I really hate when you do that, yknow.”

“Yeah yeah, I know. Now get your ass out there.”

Kara hesitates, shuffling her feet.

“Um..”

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Uh so Streaky…”

“Kara!”

“Look! I can-“

“ Really, again? I keep telling you, you just gotta pry her off! Herian Razorfangs-“

“-don’t let go. Yeah I know! But Alex! She always looks so sad when I try to.”

“I- Rao, Kara what am I going to do with you, you big sweet dork. Come here.” 

 

——————————————————————

In the time the sisters were prying off the tiny squealing dragon from Kara’s finger, the guests had shuffled into the main area of the Danver’s establishment. Kara could hear the soft murmur of voices as she makes her way up to the back door leading to and from the office and out towards the enclosures. At the door, Kara pauses and takes a breath. 

She could do this.

She could look into King Luthor’s face.

She could talk civilly with the man.

She wouldn’t glare.

No glaring, Kara. 

No- 

The door opens with a jolt and Kara squeaks in surprise, jumping a little as she takes in the figure of the woman in the doorway, who is equally as surprised.

Kara had been expecting the King’s infamous cold steel grey eyes set in a cocky face.

She wasn’t expecting a soft expression of surprise gracing a pale face, beautifully sculpted as if from marble. Nor was she expecting those sea green eyes sparking with curiosity as they gazed over Kara’s form. 

“Oh. There was no one up front so I thought to…” The woman apprehensively shifts under her scrutiny, hand raising to tuck a strand of her loose midnight black hair behind an ear.

Kara was definitely not expecting that voice at all. Husky and all too easy for the blonde to become lost in. 

It was safe to say that Kara was rendered a bit speechless.

“Lena, I think you broke her.”

——————————————————————

Lena wasn’t expecting for someone to be standing on the other side of the door when she had pulled it open. But there stood a woman, the princess couldn’t take her eyes off. All blue eyes and blonde hair, sun kissed skin that might have been blessed by Rao himself as far as Lena was concerned. And, yes, she was transfixed.

The woman’s broad shoulders were raised in utter surprise, draped in leather material Lena might have read about Dragon Riders wearing somewhere in her spare time. Her athletic build made the strange gear look good and Lena’s mouth, more functional than her brain at that moment, stuttered some excuse she didn’t hear as she was too busy staring. 

“Lena, I think you broke her.” Sam’s voice brings Lena out of her daze and she turns only to shoot the woman a glare strong enough to challenge the others cheeky grin.

Seemingly also brought to the present by Sam’s voice, the blue eyed woman blinks for a moment before she manages to compose herself. The easy light hearted smile she shoots the two women afterwards could have melted a glacier with its brilliance. There’s still a hint of pink along the woman’s ears and cheeks but she busies herself by shuffling past Lena, towards the front counter. 

“I-I’m sorry for the wait! I was held up in a… situation with one of the younger dragons.” The woman chuckles and sheepishly rubs the back of her neck. As if remembering herself, her gaze then shoots up quickly but now there is a wary edge to it. “What brings you to the Danvers’ Dragon Menagerie? I… I must admit I was expecting the Luthor family… “ 

Lena’s stomach drops at the woman’s quick change in demeanor with the mention of her last name. She looks over her shoulder and sees the sympathetic look Sam offers her. This was what she was afraid of. 

The royal family was never well liked among the neighboring kingdoms, or even their own. For Lionel’s cruelty or Lex’s madness, Lena had heard heated whispers for both reasons, and no matter how hard she tries she could never escape their connection. She expects that someone who works so closely with the creatures her brother had tried to exterminate would only hold hatred for her entire family. She couldn’t have blamed them even she had any inclination to. 

Lena took a sharp breath and closed her eyes. It would do nothing to try and prolong the inevitable. 

“You were right in your assumptions… I am a Luthor.” She lets out, as steadily as her nerves would allow her. “Lena. King Luthor’s lesser known sister.” The princess chances a bitter chuckle at her own expense and only in her mind does she add ‘the only Luthor who hasn’t tried to commit genocide at some point’. 

“But I’d like to assure you, I don’t hold the same opinions as he does pertaining to the matters I’d like to discuss with you.” She pins on instead. 

The blonde woman’s eyes widen and she hurriedly, if not clumsily walks from around the desk to offer a curt bow.

“Ah Princess! My apologies, ma’am. You - ah you look nothing like your brother… I didn’t know.” 

Lena sighs and is about to ask the woman to stand when she hears a snort from the open doorway, where another woman, tall with red hair shaved short, leans against the wood. 

“If she looked anything like her brother, she’d be bald and you wouldn’t have been so lovestruck, Kara.”

Lena is taken aback by the woman’s bluntness, unused to being spoken to in such a manner by anyone other than Sam. Sam who is only barely holding back her laughter and fond gazes for the newcomer.

“Alex!” Kara, Lena learns, gasps in shock. 

Alex smirks at her sister then turns to look at Lena with defiant eyes and chin raised. 

“Not that your highness couldn’t pull it off, of course.” 

At this Sam bursts into an uproar of giggles and has to hold herself up against the wall by the front entrance, clutching at her stomach. 

Kara seems to sputter excuses on her sister’s behalf while the aforementioned woman does nothing but stare the young Luthor down. 

Lena suspects there is some kind of challenge there. As Alex’s eyes say ‘tell me you aren’t like your family’ they flash dangerously despite the smirk on her face. 

No doubt, had the woman actually said this to her brother, or Rao forbid it, her mother, she would have no doubt ended up in the dungeons. For life.

And this is what she imagines Kara is thinking as she offers a rambling apology that seems to contain phrases such as “I’d still think your pretty” and “please don’t kill her”. 

Lena nearly laughs as well when she hears the woman’s pleas and sees those pleading puppy eyes. Those eyes. Who could resist?

“Kara, please that’s quite alright.” Lena calms, gesturing with her hands in a placating manner, until the blondes’ pleas quiet. She turns to Alex now with a small smirk of her own. “I’m only grateful that the baldness doesn’t quite run in the family. And despite popular belief, neither does the taste for dragon hunting.” 

Lena takes in the minuscule hint of awed surprise on Alex’s face, and then the actual awe in Kara’s open expression. Her own demeanor softens as she presses on further with a somber voice. 

“That’s why I’m here actually. There’s- ah there was this dragon. Three weeks ago, she was caught in a trap, in the woods near the castle. I couldn’t let my brother find her… as you’d imagine, she would not have lived. So, I instructed a trusted servant to get her here. To your establishment.” Lena trails off realizing the tiny amount of desperation present in her voice. Desperation for the sisters to understand.

“I had been informed that you take in sick or abandoned creatures. Any dragon that needed your help. And she needed it. Something I couldn’t give her.” 

Lena watches as the sister’s faces go slack with recognition and it’s all the reason she needs to push further.

“Please, I just need to know how she is. I understand your wariness, considering… But please, just let me know that she made it, and is okay. I’ll leave right after and no one will ever know we were here. Least of all, Lex.” This is the closest the princess has ever come to begging and she can feel Sam’s surprised stare against her back. 

Kara and Alex share a look between each other, eyes communicating in the way that only two people who have spent their entire lives together could. There seems to be a hesitance but, Lena feels relief the moment the elder Danvers’ face softens and she shrugs her shoulders, in a conceding motion. Kara nods sharply and a small but heavy smile graces her face as she looks back at Lena. 

“Princess-“

“Please, Lena is fine.” She waves off the formality, letting her eagerness for the news crack through the usually composed mask she wears. 

“Okay… Lena.” The woman is hesitant but rolls her tongue over her name smoothly as if savoring it. Kara sighs before continuing.

“Lena, she is alive.” 

Lena’s shoulders sag, relief flooding her body. At the words, she feels a weight that had been pressing down on her the entire journey here, slide off of her. That was it. That’s all she needed to know. Yet. There was also something in her chest.  
An aching feeling that needed to be healed. And in the only way she could think of.

“May I… could I perhaps, see her?” 

At this, Kara leans forward, forearms propping her against the counter and bows her head, whilst Alex looks away uncomfortably. Lena feels the tension return gradually, with every silent second that passes.

There was always the ‘but’.

“She’s alive… but not ...well.” Alex finally offers. 

“What do you mean?”

It’s Kara who takes up the explanation, eyes soft and worried and Lena feels as if she can see the depth of the woman’s love for dragon’s in this one moment.

“She was brought here on a cart, a man named John Jones told us she had been caught in a dragon trap. The kind that was meant to sever the wings and... immobilize the creature…” Kara whispers, her voice straining with anger. “He left and we took her in, healed the wounds as best as we could...but…” She tapers off, breathing in sharply and letting it out in a frustrated huff. “It was so bad. It took a week for the poor girl to even open her eyes. And even then… well. She was so scared. Flightless. She’s still refusing to eat. I- we don’t know what to do at this point…” 

Lena had felt the tears gathering in her eyes long before Kara had finished. She couldn’t understand it. This deep care for a creature she had only known so, so briefly. Yet here she was, on the verge of sobs with anger painting her bones and curling her fists tighter into her emerald cloak. 

She tries not to flinch when she feels Sam’s arms come to drape across her shoulders. Lena refuses to shy away from the act though her skin sears with unwelcome heat. Like fire. 

“Please, let me see her.” 

The sisters stare at the clear distress in the woman’s body language then glance to each other with a spark of understanding passing between them. And maybe a shimmer of hope.

——————————————————————

“Lena are you sure about this?”

Sam is holding the shorter woman by the shoulders, palms rubbing soothing circles, as she leans forward to hear her answer.

“Yes, Sam. Please, go with Alex. I think- I have to do this alone.” Lena gives her a hand a solid squeeze where it rests on her own shoulder.

“Only if you're sure, my lady.” The taller woman says with a small smile that’s turns into a full on grin at Lena’s protests. 

“Don’t get all formal on me now, Arias! Go, I’ll be fine. Kara will be there too.” Lena insists and gives her friend a gentle shove to get her going.

Sam conceded and releases her beginning to walk away, towards a waiting Alex, but not before sending a wink over her shoulder. She mouths ‘Kara ooh’ and dashes away in light of Lena’s glare.

Lena watches as the two taller women meet and start off a walk together, arms occasionally bumping as Alex begins to give her a tour of the Danvers’ place. 

She hears more than sees the younger Danvers approach her from behind, steady footsteps coming from a small side building.

“Thanks for waiting. I’ve been wearing that stuff the entire morning. Leather can get kinda hot”

As she glances over she sees that Kara has stripped down to her light tunic and a pair of sturdy looking trousers tucked into simple boots. It’s mind blowing to the princess, that the woman could make such a simple outfit look enticing. She can appreciate the image of the work worn fabric as it strains over where Kara’s shoulder muscle meets her toned bicep. Thoughts such as these can only flutter through Lena’s brain for a second before she is reminded of her reason for coming. 

Kara is in the middle of watching her sister and Sam walk further to the other side of the compound, a hand over her eyes to block out the sun over head. Then she is turning to Lena with that heavy smile.

“Just us, I guess. C’mon then, Princess.”


End file.
